Friday, May 27, 2016

When Trump saved the farm

I originally posted this at 2 PM on December 26, 2015. I repost it now because it was one of the things that inspired me to write my book about him and the pundits.

In my previous post, I gave an explanation that I had not seen for Donald Trump's success: "Maybe the other candidates aren't that good." Bush, Christie, Huckabee, and Kasich were good governors who have had a year now to make their case to Republicans. These are not nobodies. Two had Fox News shows, one represents a Republican dynasty, and Chris Christie is very well-known. They all trail Doctor Ben Carson, who is a bumbling candidate who was not well-known a year ago.

But let us not discount The Donald. He is a man of the people. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an online post recounted an overlooked story from December 23, 1986, when the widow and children of Lenard Dozier Hill III of Burke County, Georgia, burned their mortgage at Trump Tower in New York City as guests of The Donald and his first wife, Ivana.

Hill had committed suicide on February 4, 1986, in a vain and foolish attempt to pay off his mortgage through life insurance policies. Of course, they do not pay off for suicides. The bank foreclosed. Banks were foreclosing on family farms all over the South and Midwest. Willie Nelson organized Farm Aid concerts, but he couldn't save all of them.

The Hill story struck home. Touched by the national news stories about the Hills, Trump called Frank Argenbright, a wealthy Atlantan who had saved the farm of Oscar Lorick. Argenbright. Trump flew Argenbright and the Hills to Trump Tower to work out a plan. Then Trump called a bank vice president. From Trump's book, “The Art of the Deal”:

“I said to the guy, ‘You listen to me. If you do foreclose, I’ll bring a lawsuit for murder against you and your bank, on the grounds that you harassed Mrs. Hill’s husband to his death.’ All of a sudden, the banker sounded very nervous and said he’d get right back to me. Sometimes it pays to be a little wild.”

Trump organized a fund to pay off the mortgage, and two days before Christmas 1986, the Hill family had a mortgage burning. Hill's daughter, Betsy Sharp, told the AJC: “I had just graduated from high school. He flew us to New York, and we went to Trump Towers and had breakfast with him. We saw a whole different side of him that was kindhearted, to reach out to us, to help us. Most people don’t know and see that side. All they see is just the ‘blurt’ that people put on the TV. They don’t see the other side of him, and that’s what my family got to experience.”

People may say, well that is just one farm saved and he's rich.

But what farm did Hillary Clinton save? Bernie Sanders? Jeb Bush? Chris Christie? For all his bravado -- his billions -- his ego, Donald John Trump is a man of the people.

By the way, Sharp's brother runs the farm now, the fourth-generation farmer on that land.

12 comments:

Conservatives are generous with their own money. Liberals are generous with other peoples' money as evidenced by the fact that people in red states give far more to charity than people in blue states. The Clinton Foundation is a "charity" for the Clinton family. Last year it used about 8% of its money for actual charitable purposes. In a sane world, it would be shut down for the criminal slush fund that it is. In a sane world BJ and Thunder Rodent Thighs would both be in prison for the rest of their lives.

Random acts of kindness. It's not the first time I've heard that kind of sorry about Trump, digging into his pocket to help/bailout some poor working class slob who life and the American dream has urinated all of his life. Frank Sinatra was that kind of guy, thought to be a major asshole by most,rightfully so,had a hobby of helping folks out of his pocket because he could.

Interesting that instead of just paying off the mortgage out of his own pocket he helped to organize a grass roots effort to raise the money. He did use his skill and clout to intimidate the mortgage bank, who deserved it. In the process he got more good publicity than if he had just paid outright. Smart guy.

Nothing I've heard The Donald say in his stump speeches is as dumb as the things that Obama actually does from the Oval Office. Plus, I'm sure Trump knows to keep his freakin' shoes off the office furniture, like the Resolute desk.

He's flawed. Man, he's flawed. But he's still on the side of the angels, I reckon. And I think there's folks who'll stand by him, who'll bear witness to him, when it counts. When it really counts. You know what I mean.

To come back to the present, I think there's a paradigm shift a-coming. So, don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall, Senator. You don't want to lie in front of this bulldozer, cos our guy is fully licensed to drive it.